WASHINGTON, DC – The widow of Corey Comperatore, the Pennsylvania man who was tragically murdered with a bullet meant for President Donald Trump at a July rally, said that Trump called her “every day for almost two weeks” after the shooting.
Helen Comperatore was joined by the couple’s adult daughters, Allyson and Kaylee Comperatore, to deliver heartfelt remarks about Corey at Saturday’s pre-inauguration Patriot Awards.
Recalling the horrific moment when the 20-year-old gunman fatally shot her husband at the Butler, Pennsylvania, event, the grieving wife said “we left as a family of three”:
“When we arrived at the rally on July 13, my husband was so excited. He just absolutely loved Trump. It was all he talked about, you know, and winning. And when we left, we left this family of three,” Helen said to a crowd of honorees and supporters at the awards ceremony.
“When he was shot, my two kids both witnessed it. We were all together, and I’ll never forget my oldest daughter’s face, holding his head, wrapped in a towel that somebody threw down to us, and she said, ‘Mom, help me,’” she emotionally recalled.
The pair were high school sweethearts, and were married for nearly three decades before Corey’s tragic murder.
“And I’ll never, ever forget her face. It’s been a long road. For two months, I don’t even think I functioned,” Helen continued, before saying she got “hate mail” after declining to take a phone call from then-President Joe Biden.
“The community has been wonderful… I got cards from the entire United States. I did get hate mail, and the hate mail came because I refused to take Biden’s call the next day,” she said.
“There were two Secret Service people on the roof right behind us, and he got off nine shots. Nine, before they got off one. And it just makes me sick that they allow that to happen, and they are going to pay for it,” she continued. “And I am going to fight for my husband, because he deserves justice. He deserves the world. He was a hero before this happened, but he is definitely a hero now.”
The Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump released its final report in December, finding that there were “failures in the planning, execution, and leadership” of the U.S. Secret Service.
Helen went on to describe how their last night together as a family before the rally was “the best,” as they attended country singer Chris Stapleton’s concert in Burgettstown.
“When we went to the concert, he held my hand the whole time. And when our song came on, he danced with me, and he never did that stuff in public, never, that was not him,” Helen said tearfully. “We had the best night ever.”
“And I’m just sharing this because I feel like God gave me a gift, like he knew that was going to happen, and he just gave me the best gift… and not even 24 hours later, he was dead,” she continued in her powerful speech.
Trump, who narrowly escaped a fatal headshot himself, has continued to support the Comperatore family since that fateful day.
“President Trump has been great. He has been so good to our family. He has just been amazing,” Helen added, saying Trump called her “every day for almost two weeks.”
The Patriot Awards, held in Washington, DC’s National Press Building, honored the Comperatore family along several big names in the MAGA movement, ranging from actor Jon Voight to Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle.
Helen then introduced her daughters, both in their 20s, to the podium:
Fondly recalling the weekend that she and her sister both had their respective graduations, Allyson said that her father was overwhelmed with emotion.
“He looked at me, and he goes, ‘I don’t know, Allyson. It just wasn’t supposed to go that fast,’” the elder Comperatore sister remembered. “And I was thinking about that, and just our whole life with our dad, it wasn’t supposed to go that fast.”
“So when people say, ‘You know, life can change in an instant,’ it really can,” Allyson added, holding back tears.
Her younger sister, Kaylee, added that Corey “was just so protective of us, and he was so proud of us, and he instilled so much strength.”
“Something so important about my dad was he loved God first, he loved his family and he loved his country, and I am so beyond honored to be his daughter. And we are going to carry his legacy with us,” Kaylee said. “And we just appreciate everybody, all of the support, and we are just honored to be here. So thank you.”
The Patriot Award trophies, which are 18-inch bronze statues of Trump, were also given to the likes of Republican activist Scott Presler and investigative journalist James O’Keefe.
The trophies were smaller replicas of a two-story Trump tower that is posed in his iconic “Fight, fight, fight!” stance from the July 13 assassination attempt.
“PATRIOT Founder Ashley Sansalone was responsible for the idea to create the statue and manages the construction and logistics of the project,” event host Dustin Stockton, a former Breitbart reporter, told Breitbart News. “Without Ash, none of this could have happened.”